Chiang Mai is swathed in smog. It’s opaque, oppressive, and disconcerting. There’s no horizon. The air is yellowish and way, way above acceptable health levels: the result of forest fires and local slash-and-burn agriculture crashing head-to-head with El Niño, the global weather phenomenon. But the sickly air quality – earlier in the year Bangkok was similarly shrouded in pollution – only serves to match the obfuscation and uncertainty surrounding Thailand’s first contested elections in over 8 years.